The morning after or decades later, it’s still the same old world it was before the walls started to breathe

Crispin Sartwell on the cultural legacy of LSD.

 

12 Responses to “The morning after or decades later, it’s still the same old world it was before the walls started to breathe”

  1. Mr. Dings Says:

    Chop wood carry water, either which way but what. Even after the cows (or the chickens) come home (to crap or roost or whatever they do). Jesus loves you more than you will know….

  2. Bentnotesmanhisself Says:

    Sure, man.

  3. Mr. Dings Says:

    I never took the stuff. Glad I didn’t. Just heard it’s like enlightenment. After which, chop wood, carry water. I think Jesus was something like enlightened and, they say, more. Hope I make the cut. Thhhh that’s all man…..

  4. Mr. Dings Says:

    Zen Catholicism is my thing now.

    http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Catholicism-Dom-Alfred-Graham/dp/0824514254

    It fits. And, at least it was kosher with Il Papas since V II, but, now that Time has questioned whether liberal Catholicism is dead (I guess since the current Pope apologized for the American clergy’s sexual abuse scandals, and, of course lawsuits draining diocesan coffers). the lotus posture may be “out” once again.

    http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1737323,00.html

    “It’s a new ball game,” admits Steinfels. As Tilley wrote recently in Commonweal regarding his fellow theologians, “A new generation has neither the baggage nor the ballast of mine. Theirs is the future. Let’s hope they remember the Council as the most important event in twentieth-century Catholicism.”

    Those who knew never said much, just that there were no easy routes….

  5. Mr. Dings Says:

    Must admit I sure liked my herb though. Much more benign than ethyl alcohol for this biochemistry. Too bad I was never really free to enjoy it, though I thankfully did, often, with luck in avoiding the authorities here in our so free land of reason and liberty. Drug war against our own people here, declared by a US President is now 38 years on. We went from a War on Poverty (without victory, of course) right into a War on Drugs. Cool beans, man. Even if you can take the heat, they’ll yank you right outta the kitchen. Unless, of course, you succumb to easy abuse of the more refined pharmaceutical addictions we’re dealing with now–products of our free markets. Call Rush L. and Jimmie I. for starters, for the lay of that land. Kids these days just raid grandma’s medicine cabinet.

    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/cron/

  6. Mr. Dings Says:

    For more depth on the pharmaceutical scam in this free land, you might want to check out this recent release:

    http://www.amazon.com/Our-Daily-Meds-Pharmaceutical-Prescription/dp/0374228272/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209936858&sr=8-1

    “A devastating, often shocking, critique of a once proud industry that has been converted by corporate greed into a vast marketing machine that is often a menace to health. Petersen supports her indictment with an abundance of fascinating detail and human interest stories. An excellent contribution to the growing demand for better regulation of an industry that has grown way too powerful and heedless of the interests of its customers.” —Marcia Angell, M. D., Senior Lecturer in Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Arnold S. Relman, M. D., Prof. Emeritus of Medicine and of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School

    Ahh, but they know best. Give us this day….

  7. Mr. Dings Says:

    Anyhow, it all gave (the idea?) enlightenment a really bad reputation. I suppose it can take it since it’s been around for a few millennia. What’s a bunch of punks in the last half of the 20th Century gonna change anyhow. But we’re still looking for quick fixes. Instead of Stones or Beatles, the big question now is: Viagra or Cialis?

  8. Bentnotesmanhisself Says:

    I think there is indeed something to the notion that the pharmaceutical industry has gone in for aggressively looking for “conditions” in people for which it can prescribe freshly developed products. That said, I wouldn’t want to go back to the levl of treatment we had in the 1600s . . . or 800s . . or 200s BC . . .

  9. Mr. Dings Says:

    Two vital comments remain “awaiting moderation,” one of which has been submitted twice. The gist is: yes, the sixties “instant enlightenment” thing definitely did not work and “we” the youth of that day are now the even huger assholes of our day. Money and power still hold their sway but true enlightenment is still there to be had in the right (for lack of a better word) way. BTW, my Xgen son, who came under lysergic’s sway (despite, or perhaps because of, this parent’s warnings against such) says the linked article has it pretty much down.

  10. Mr. Dings Says:

    Anyhow, are you saying that you now regret any of your explorations? And that there is absolutely no place for hallucinogens in modern times?

  11. Mr. Dings Says:

    you just blog and run, run and blog

    From a dharma talk by Zen Master Bon Shim (Aleksandra Porter):

    “Many times we want to get something from practice, but enlightenment means to lose everything–not to get anything. You don’t get anything, you lose everything. You have to be prepared for that. You have to be ready to really lose everything, to lose all illusions about yourself. That’s not easy. We don’t like it. We want to keep at least a little illusion, to have at least something, some little thing to hold onto so we can feel secure.”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq3bLe6I_L4

  12. Mr. Dings Says:

    http://www.doingnothing.com/talks_08.php

    It’s all drugs. Everything we consume in any way is a drug—it changes the way our mind apprehends reality. We tell our kids to “Just Say No” to drugs and then say “Yes” to the ultraviolence of television and movies.

    Everything is food for the mind

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